STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Talk about a Scrooge!

“Once a year your brains all shrivel. Once a year you turn to mush,” sings the world’s most famous Grinch in Mark Waldrop and Dick Gallagher’s musical version of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”

“Once a year the same old nonsense—feed the poor and peace on earth…Once a year the same old blather. One a year the same old tripe. I think I’d rather take your jolly ol’ St. Nick and stuff him up your chimney pipe.”

That’s the way this otherwise charming retelling of the 1843 Victorian classic starts out. And it’s sure to set some toes a-tapping and some tear ducts a-watering with tunes like “Guess Who Kicked the Bucket Last Night” and “Here With You.”

“A Christmas Carol: The Musical” starts at 7 tonight through Friday, Dec. 23, at The Argyros Theater in Ketchum before concluding with a 1 p.m. matinee on Christmas Eve. Tickets start at $15, available at https://theargyros.org/calendar/a-christmas-carol

Laughing Stock Theater first presented the show in 2006 and it has become a holiday tradition since, save for its recent three-year hiatus, thanks in large part to the COVID pandemic. This year’s production features many new actors, including Brett Moellenberg as Scrooge and Matt Musgrove as Cratchit.

“I really missed it!” said Director Patsy Wygle who adapted the musical with the help of her late husband Keith Moore. “The COVID break changed all of us, and the joy of coming together for a joyous holiday means more than ever, I think.”

The 80-minute musical presents the familiar timeless story of a man who transforms from a curmudgeonly old miser to someone who realizes his riches are better off being shared for the good of all.

The audience watches as Scrooge cowers beneath the bed sheets in the face of a visit from his departed business partner Jacob Marley, who is cursed to drag a chain of woes, a chain of tears wherever he goes.

“I want to rest, but walk I must…” he warns Scrooge.

The audience also watches a loving boy who was abandoned by his father at Christmastime evolve into a youth who has no time for Christmas because “Christmas has no time for me.”

The musical draws on a beautiful stage set put together by Jamey Reynolds and Steve Pruitt and painted by Judy Stoltzfus and Samuel Mollner, as well as rich costuming by longtime costume designer Winkie McCray and Karen Hand, as it tells the story of transformation.

“Oddly enough, Dickens actually wrote the story quickly and just before Christmas because he needed the money,” said Wygle. “Ironic that the story basically tells us that money can’t buy happiness, that family, love and giving of oneself does that.  To me that message never grows old.”

This year’s cast includes three families, including that of Andrew, Kristal, Qwydion and Kjedryn Schiers and that of John and Trish Lewis and their daughter Annabelle, who has performed in a multitude of  plays in the valley since first appearing in “A Christmas Carol: The Musical.”

Patsy Wygle is joined in the musical by her son Jamie Wygle, who grew up playing various roles in the musical and now lives and works in Brooklyn, N.Y. She also is joined in spirit by her late husband, who worked with her on off-Broadway and TV productions in New York before moving to Sun Valley.

“I never get through Tiny Tim’s graveyard scene without tearing up, in part because Bob Cratchit was originally played by Keith,” she said. “The lyrics, ‘Though the moments that we shared together flew, I give thanks for ev’ry breath you ever drew’ that Cratchit sings to his son are so universal and relevant to every relationship we have.”

THE CAST AND CREW

Brett Moellenberg plays Ebeneezer Scrooge and Matt Musgrove, Bob Cratchit and Jacob Marley. Joy Bond reprises her role as Christmas Past, while Ward Loving and Victor Watson play Christmas Present and Future.

Fallon McClury and Sloan Heinz take turns playing Tiny Tim, while Sebastian Wieduwilt, Harrison Black, Hoken Johnston and Jamie Wygle play Scrooge as a youngster and as a young man. Ward Loving plays Mr. Fezziwig, alongside Trish Lewis who plays Mrs. Fezziwig. And Andrew Schiers plays an assortment of parts including that of Fred Wilkins, while Annabelle Lewis plays Caroline and Agatha Winters.

Others in the cast are Eryn Alvey, Kristal Schiers, Rachel Aanestad, Rick Hoffman, Charles Fowler, Joseph Bosteder, Tony Barriatua, Leonie Wilson, Violet Resko, Gertie Pitts, Campbell Leady, Satchel Swindley, Georgie Payne, Niko Smith, Paige Wieduwilt, Rivers Hickey, Maya Alvey, Eavon Brown, Qwydion Schiers, Grace Bloedorn, Torin Vandenberg, Patsy Wygle, Sloan Heinz, and John Lewis.

Patsy Wygle is the director; Robert Carwithen, the musical director, and Paul Gregory, the pianist. Megan Mahoney is the choreographer and stage manager; Michele Minailo, wardrobe mistress; Jamie Wygle, assistant stage manager; Samuel Mollner, the technical and lighting designer, and Ernie Trevino,  sound engineer. Stage hands are John Lewis, Victor Watson, Ric Hoffman, Jamie Wygle, Charlie Foster, Fischer Lewis and Sam Felps.